The present invention is generally related to telesurgical devices, systems, and methods. In an exemplary embodiment, the invention provides systems and methods for robotically altering a focus, optical scaling, and/or scaling factor of a robotic surgical system in response to robotic movements, preferably so as to maintain focus at a fixed location in space during movement of an image capture device, so as to maintain focus on a moving robotic tool, or the like; and/or so as to adjust the scale of robotic end effector movements corresponding to input commands in a master/slave telerobotic system so as to compensate for the changes in scale of an object shown in a display, and the like.
Minimally invasive medical techniques are intended to reduce the amount of extraneous tissue which is damaged during diagnostic or surgical procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects. One effect of minimally invasive surgery, for example, may be reduced post-operative hospital recovery times. Because the average hospital stay for a standard surgery is typically significantly longer than the average stay for an analogous minimally invasive surgery, increased use of minimally invasive techniques could save millions of dollars in hospital costs each year. While many of the surgeries performed each year in the United States could potentially be performed in a minimally invasive manner, only a portion of the current surgeries use these advantageous techniques due to limitations in minimally invasive surgical instruments and the additional surgical training involved in mastering them.
Minimally invasive robotic surgical or telesurgical systems have been developed to increase a surgeon's dexterity and avoid some of the limitations on traditional minimally invasive techniques. In telesurgery, the surgeon uses some form of remote control, e.g., a servomechanism or the like, to manipulate surgical instrument movements. In telesurgery systems, the surgeon can be provided with an image of the surgical site at the surgical workstation. While viewing a two or three dimensional image of the surgical site on a display, the surgeon performs the surgical procedures on the patient by manipulating master control devices, which in turn control motion of the servomechanically operated instruments.
The servomechanism used for telesurgery will often accept input from two master controllers (one for each of the surgeon's hands) and may include two or more robotic arms or manipulators, on each of which a surgical instrument is mounted. Operative communication between master controllers and associated robotic arm and instrument assemblies is typically achieved through a control system. The control system typically includes at least one processor which relays input commands from the master controllers to the associated robotic arm and instrument assemblies, and back from the instrument and arm assemblies to the associated master controllers (in the case of, e.g., force feedback or the like). One example of a robotic surgical system is the DaVinci® system available from Intuitive Surgical, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
The new telesurgical devices have significantly advanced the art, providing huge potential improvements in endoscopic procedures. However, as with many such advances, still further improvements would be desirable. In particular, it is generally beneficial to provide clear and precise displays of the surgical environment and treatments to a surgeon working with a telesurgical system. Three dimensional image displays significantly enhance the surgeon's ability to interact with the tissues and visually guide the procedure, as the visual input may be more complete (as compared to open surgical procedures) than the tactile feedback provided by some robotic systems. When placing a heightened reliance on visual input, any loss of focus by the imaging system may be particularly distracting. Additionally, while the known robotic surgical systems may provide good correlation between movement of the input devices and movement of the robotic instruments in many circumstances, the correlation might still benefit from further improvements.
In general, it would be desirable to provide improved telesurgical and/or telerobotic devices, systems, and methods. It would be, for example, advantageous to provide new approaches for maintaining clarity of the visual display presented to surgeons and other system operators of such telesurgical and telerobotic devices. It would also, for example, be helpful to provide enhanced correlations between the input movements and the robotic end effector movements calculated by the processor of the system, particularly as the configuration of the robotic procedure undergoes changes as the procedure progresses.